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Loading... The Best American Science Writing 2008by Sylvia NasarSeries: The Best American Science Writing (2008), Best American (2008)
Some interesting articles, a lot that struck me as Reader's Digest level 'science'. Doctors are being paid by drug reps! Inappropriate medications are being prescribed for children! There's a rare genetic disease that makes people bite off their fingers! Hmmph. Al Gore's discussion of global warming was interesting, primarily because it's a lot more nuanced than the usual reporting on the subject - we can't destroy the world, but we _can_ make it a lot less pleasant for humans to live in. And some of the genetic discussions were also interesting - commercial gene-sequencing, and global seed storage. Overall, though, the book was a lot less interesting than I thought it would be - there was not one reporting of a real discovery, nor anything in the hard sciences. In the intro the editor mentioned that medicine was the major focus that year - but personally I'd have found some hard science to replace at least one of the three doctors-doing-bad-stuff RD-level stories. I don't think I'll bother to seek out others in the series - though if some have other editors they might be worth my while. ( ) |
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